[ Reviewed by: Calyst ] - [ Date: Saturday,
1st June, 2002 ]
Necrobrood is Kona's latest Q1 release,
oddly not released as part of the long-standing
alk??.zip family. Not that it's an indication
of anything, because this unit flat-out
rocks.
As might be expected from Kona, the texturing
is diverse, primarily based on metal. Arrayed
nicely, but at times areas look too busy
because there's a tad too much variation
in the layers. Often this has a detrimental
effect on the visuals, making them fall
short of eye-candy.
At least it doesn't interfere with the
impressive level design. It should probably
be noted that the layout here is quite different
from ALK?? maps in recent memory - certainly
a pleasant surprise, if you're at all accustomed
to Kona's style. There's one visible clipping
error, but the construction is very neat
otherwise. The maps themselves are designed
attractively and in complete support of
map-crawling gameplay - they're absolutely
filled with architectural variation in both
the horizontal and vertical. To put it simply,
the attention to detail is amazing.
Gameplay
is a real Quakey treat with enemies modified
in every sense of the word. Not only are
most re-skinned, a lot of them know how
to jump too! Of course sometimes they'll
jump into lava, so they're not very smart,
but the new jumping ability ends up making
combat ever more difficult. The combat drives
hard, starting light and progressing quickly
for a real challenge. And that's not all
that's progressive, weapons are provided
on an as-needed basis. The best part is,
this all leads to intelligent, straightforward
gameplay rife with challenges & tricks.
And the finale is impressive too...a set-piece
involving Chthon that significantly improves
on the formula in E1M8.
This unit is an overall improvement on
Kona's own formula at that. An interesting
story, classic gameplay, and pleasing level
design all help to make Necrobrood very
good indeed, and in fact, better than Brumal
Quest (alk15).
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